OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY. 133 



friends, the British Land System is in no case to withstand 

 the assaults of its enemies. The most powerful weapons in 

 the armoury of attack are the admissions of defeat by its 

 defenders. 



In my belief the present land system cannot fairly be 

 accused of failure. The conditions under which Agriculture 

 is carried on in an industrial country are determined by the 

 political and economic circumstances of the nation. It is 

 futile to compare a country which is predominantly agri- 

 cultural with a country which is predominantly industrial. 

 It may be literally true that Agriculture is still our greatest 

 individual industry, but in some other countries it is greater 

 than all other industries put together, and in those cases 

 Agriculture dominates national policy. To assume that it 

 can ever do so here is only to court eventual disappointment. 

 The land system has endured through the period of funda- 

 mental change which marked the transition from an 

 agricultural to an industrial nation, and on the whole it has 

 been justified by its results. The change now impending is 

 the shifting of the centre of gravity in the agricultural 

 industry itself, and the system which will evolve will be that 

 which in the main is most advantageous to the majority 

 of those who live by the land. Meanwhile the best chance of 

 ensuring that the inevitable evolution proceeds on sound 

 lines is that all men of goodwill who are concerned in the 

 future of British Agriculture should recognise the facts and 

 co-operate for the common weal. 



